Friday, September 18, 2009

Interesting news in the world of union leadership. Richard Trumka, second in command to retiring President John Sweeney, has taken over the AFL-CIO Presidency. [almost in a coronation manner]
I'm reading in several accounts that it was pretty much pre-ordained.
In the recent past, the AFL-CIO has spent most of their war chest on candidates that have been friendly to labor. That is not expected to change.

What's interesting is, I got this email about UNITE coming back to the big family at AFL-CIO and walking away from SEIU. Any of us who get such emails and twitters, know there has been a move to leave SEIU for quite some time. Maybe UNITE shouldn't have left in the first place, But I don't know all the details. With a few friends in the hotel business, I would get to hear some of the in-fighting that their representation was going through, but not to this extent.

What I did see in the New York Times, was that Arlen Specter has made a complete turnaround on the Employee Free Choice Act. Shocking isn't it? What got into him? Well the opportunity to insert some stipulations of his own of course. That's the Specter we remember.

To close: I say congrats to Richard Trumka in leading the troops back to the home team. Its only a matter of time before those you left behind rejoin as well.

13 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I'm very pleased with Rich Trumpka taking over AFL-CIO !! My favorite quote of Trumpka's " WE need to be a labor movement that stands by our friends,punishes its enemies,and challenges those who cant seem to decide which side they're on." Sound familiar? There is a certain labor leader in Kingston that is no longer an officer of CSEA but runs Political Action for kingston CSEA that practices and embraces this philosophy of Trumpka's. The Mayor and the front office (Gorsline and co.) regularly were pummeled by this labor leader and his philosophy. Once again, Im very happy for Rich Trumpka...

Now if everyone would look for the "Made in USA" on the label, we'd all be better off. Seriously folks, your continued shopping at WalMart and the big box stores where Chinese manufactured goods undermine the efforts here in the states, only perpetuates the decline in our own economy.Purchase goods that are made here and you'll save jobs here.

The UAW has just released its annual list of union-made vehicles. The 2010 list includes cars, trucks, pickups, vans, SUVs and crossovers from U.S., European and Asian-based carmakers. The guide lists all vehicles made by UAW members, members of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) and IUE-CWA

Wait, didn't the voters reject all of the candidates that CSEA endorsed locally two years ago? How is it that they are so splintered from the regional labor federation and yet expect a victory this year?Explain this?

6:03, Bart is the President for the next 4 years, and Troy controls political action. Your not gonna always see Troy, but he is always there. Charlie Thomas isn't strong enough to get rid of those boys, they are too well insulated in the union. As a matter of fact, Charlie has serious resentment against Troy because Troy gave Charlie a physical beating in Charlie's bar a few years ago. Furthermore, Bart has exposed Charlie for under handed activity on the job.